Microsoft: Not Playing to Win?

Microsoft has a new CEO and so it is no surprise that you start hearing shake up stories. This one from BI, about problems in Microsoft’s sales department caught my eye

a customer is viewed as important (or not important) based on old standards like how many Windows licenses they buy, instead of new standards, like how much cloud computing services they need.

The article goes on to point out that Microsoft is not the only software company that is overly fixated on selling licenses like this. But one can see the strategic rot here — using Lafley and Martin’s model, it may not be playing in the right market segment.